Show Me the Money: Does Shared Capitalism Share the Wealth?

Abstract

Based on two sets of data—the National Bureau of Economic Relations (NBER) Shared Capitalism Project surveys of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) companies and the national General Social Survey—we find that employees in ESOP companies have significant holdings of employer stock. While salaried workers in ESOP companies have larger account balances than hourly workers do, hourly workers in ESOPs do significantly better than hourly workers in general, both in terms of ownership and earnings. More broadly, the median pension wealth of ESOP participants is over four times higher than the median household pension wealth. ESOP retirement plans do, however, remain too concentrated in employers’ stock.